


Gravity and Other Fundamental Forces

by InAmongstTheMountains



Category: Fallen Hero Series - Malin Rydén
Genre: M/M, NSFW, spoilers for retribution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 20:02:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20606504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InAmongstTheMountains/pseuds/InAmongstTheMountains
Summary: They've danced with blows dozens of times, in two very different guises, under very different circumstances, but Daniel's starting to suspect that someone he loves is under that mask.





	Gravity and Other Fundamental Forces

“Back again eh?”

Herald didn’t honestly expect to sneak up on Sidestep… no, not Sidestep, well, sorta, new Sidestep, the villain. Another telepath, a mockery, a cuckoo bird gorging on the work of those that came before. Sidestep. The name tasted like bitter ash on his tongue. The scum was undeserving of the name; especially after everything Theo had been through, after all the scars and the secrets and the time they shared. No, this villain was the antithesis of Sidestep, just strutting and posturing and never with enough courage to really finish a fight he started. In the end Herald preferred just to think of them as ‘that rat bastard’.

Sidestep… the villain ... hadn't diverted from his slow pace across the roof, hands clasped behind his back. He moved with such a lax confidence that it rankled Herald, an ugly shadow on his otherwise handsome face. “Someone has to stop you.” His voice didn’t shake.

With a dramatic twist, the villain… Sidestep… bastard ... spun to face him, the low light of the dusky Los Diablos skies reflecting off the matte black helmet. Faceless, unrevealing, though somehow Herald got the sense he was smiling at him. “I'm impressed.” He opened his arms with an exaggerated flourish. “Very brave of you coming alone.” Somehow that didn't sound like wholly an insult.

“Yeah well, stopping people like you is what Im here for.” Not the greatest retort, but Herald wasn’t here to chat. He dropped the few inches from his hover, feet shifting into a fighters pose. A familiar one. “You just going to posture all evening like you always do?”

A gauntlet hand beckoned him on and Herald caught a flash of intrigue and excitement that must have been projected from the telepath. “Show me.”

Herald moved, the grit on the roof ripped up in scratches as he charged. It took a lot of focus to keep both feet on the ground, work with his usual center gravity, but all his training with Sidestep… the real Sidestep, not this pretender, was paying off. He moved more acutely, reflexes better, a redefined strength behind his blows. The villain blocked and ducked and laughed at their flurried dance across the roof. He threw a punch that the old Herald wouldn’t have been able to block; but the new one could. Maybe each one of these engagements was training Herald too. 

Sidestep… the new one not the old, was neither the most dangerous villain to currently grace Los Diablos nor the most destructive, but he was the biggest nuisance; even before his gall stealing a hero’s name. It started out as happenstance, the right place at the wrong time. Herald had been out, keeping himself visible as Marshal Steel had ordered, and just happened upon the villain, no doubt planning something nefarious in a darkened alley. They scrambled, which is to say Herald fared hardly better than he had than at the gala, but at least the worst hurt he experienced was a blow to his pride. He’d asked Sidestep… the old one, Theo, to train him a few days later. 

Since then they’d tangled often, each time Herald did a little better, held his ground for longer (or his air as it were). He had the sneaking suspicion the bastard not only enjoyed it, but was pleased to see him improve. 

And despite his losses, Daniel got a rush of satisfaction every time Sidestep said so.

“Good, good!” The vocal distorters didn’t filter out the delighted exclamation as villain deflected Herald’s incoming blow, using the Ranger’s momentum to throw him past. Ready for the move, the flyer shifted throwing his gravitational force back, and instead of going hurtling past, the two regained their footing a few steps apart, catching their breath. “You’ve certainly gotten better. I'm proud of you, Ranger.”

There rung a genuineness to his compliments and Daniel couldn't help but glow at the praise. And he got called a Ranger! One of the team, a respected enemy and not just a poster boy. 

Though coming from him felt strangely familiar…

“I’ve had a good trainer.” Even sweaty and disheveled, Herald’s half grin was still gorgeous enough for the front page. Every second of practice with Sidestep… Theo… remained etched in his brain, full of confidence and fond memories and butterflies when Theo dared grace a smile. This Sidestep talked far too much, trying to get him distracted, to mess up, get him angry. Not that that would work this time, Herald had finally come to understand what Ortega and Angie loved so much about a good fight: when you had a good match, the adrenaline turned to hot bliss. 

He charged again but this time the villain side-stepped, catching him by the arm and spinning him in close. The villain cocked his head and Herald could almost imagine a pout behind the featureless matte helm. “You've been training with someone else? I'm a jealous man, hero.” The pouting words were laced with a flirty purr that edged on a semblance of truth. 

In the face of his enemy, and such close quarters, Herald dared another smile. “Maybe you're not as good as you think you are?” He brought his free elbow into the protected arm. Not strong enough to damage but enough to break his grasp. They separated again, the villain pausing to inspect the gauntlet. 

“That is actually your problem, hero. You think far too much.” He beckoned Herald on again. “Fights are instinctual, your mental shields need work. Try again, try and hit me.” 

For a moment, Daniel was stuck by such a profound amount of deja vu…. And not from any of their prior fights. Hadn’t Theo said the exact same thing? He shook his head to clear it. This Sidestep wanted him to hit him, so be it. 

The gap closed quickly, both of them testing each other. Letting go was easier than expected, surrendering to the pounding of his blood in his ears and the serenity that came from confidence. The better he focused, the better he countered; fighting Sidestep felt more and more like fighting an old friend, the motions and movements reminiscent of…

There! Herald caught the set up, parrying the three strikes before throwing his elbow into the other man’s visor. The villain rolled back with the blow, catching himself on one knee, throwing up dust in his wake. A pregnant pause stilled the rooftop… and then he laughed. 

“Good! Good!” The laugh he elicited bordered of manic, grinding discordant through the distorters and in Heralds ears. A portion of the faceless visor shifted, revealing a cocky curved mouth and nothing more. “A few more like that and you just might make it, angel.” The voice maintained the same gravelly purr. 

The bubble of annoyance shouldn’t have been enough to goad him, the nerve of this pretender calling himself Sidestep and playing with pet names! He thought of Theo with his tears and tattoos and he hated every atom of the man in front of him for his disrespect. Mid-rush Herald realized too late the telepath had exacerbated the emotion, pushed him into a reckless attack. The distance to short, his flight too fast, he barreled into his target sending them both grappled across the roof.

The villain ended up on top.

“You can fight but you have no resistance to my goading.” An angry lecture, a teacher to a student who wasn’t listening. Sitting on Herald’s hips he pinned the Ranger’s arms to the roof. “You care too much and it distracts you. Heroes can’t get distracted, you’ll get the ones you care about killed.” The villain hissed. This close Herald could see the blood between his teeth, and lips, familiar lips…

His arms were pinned but not his legs, and Daniel once had a brother. Though ages and memories separated him and Joshua, one didn’t just lose the instincts that came from wrestling your sibling for the remote or the last snack. With an angry huff, Herald headbutted the mask, catching one armored leg and rolling them over positions reversed. 

Now it was Heralds turn to be on top. “I don’t get you!” He kept a firm grip on the villain’s gauntlets, though the other man didn’t struggle. “You just show up and goad us into fights and then tell us what were doing wrong. Make that mean nothing, accomplish nothing. You don’t kill, you don’t steal, but you call yourself a villain! It makes no sense, it's almost like you're-” It all clicked. And wide blue eyes locked once more onto painfully familiar lips. “-training us….”

Those cruel, gorgeous lips smiled, and every nagging puzzle piece crystallized in Daniel’s head. “You’ve really come a long way, Danny.” 

“Theo.” A rasped whisper lost on the wind.

Silence passed in the eternity between heartbeats; the shadows chasing away the dying embers of the sunset. Neither moved, the gravity of the reveal, the weight of the secrets, the fundamental shift of the universe coming into a starker, uncanny, view pinning them in place. The heaviness was a blanket sticky with guilt and disbelief, a plastic bag over the head of their newborn relationship. How different of a setting for the same position separated by a few days and a few thousand light-years of understanding. 

Every question Daniel wanted to scream out remained firmly lodged in his throat, dry, and hot, and tasting like lead as it settled into his stomach. The rest of Theo’s face remained obscured by the mask Daniel had come to resent so much over the months, the neutral line of his mouth the only indication of emotion. The mouth of a lover and a stranger. In this moment, Danny almost hated him.

“Why?” 

Theo's padded shoulders shifted in what could have been a shrug. “Seemed a good idea at the time.”

A cheap answer and they both knew it. Whether by anger or devastation, Daniel’s hand trembled as he reached for the rest of the mask. The plate slid off with a hiss revealing disheveled hair, sweaty skin, and dull dark eyes met betrayed blue. 

“I said ‘why?’” Herald repeated with an edge reminiscent of Marshall Steel. If his voice shook it wasn’t from shock anymore. 

“It's what I was built to do, Daniel.” So impassive, so matter-of-fact, like that somehow excused him from months of destruction and hurt. He hated how expressionless Theo remained, like he was still wearing a mask, like this wasn’t any sort of a big deal, like seeing Daniel fall apart wasn’t killing their relationship. Like it wasn’t killing him.

The grunt of pain echoed across the rooftop as the mask collided with Theo’s face. He spat out blood, an angry welt already appearing across his cheek, and for the first time something close to human crossed his profile. “Fuck, Dan-” They say to turn the other cheek, but in this case all it earned was another blow.

“Don’t.” Daniel hissed tossing the mask aside, coming to cradle Theo’s face between his too soft and no longer trembling hands. A tender thumb brushed the angry mark that’d certainly leave a bruise, big enough that there’d be no hiding it. The well of affection, attraction, the stalwart desire to protect, mingled with a robust new frustration, and yet, still, a want, a need to save? 

Dan leaned in, inches away from those bloody teeth, those hard, unreadable eyes. “Don’t try and make me hate you.” A whisper, a pleading wish. Close enough to smell the copper and the salt. "Please."

“Danny….” No longer constrained, Theo’s hands wandered up to well-muscled thighs; those silly Ranger uniforms were all to show off and not offer any real protection. Daniel’s breath caught but he didn’t dare break their gazes. Not even for the mockingly intimate touch up his legs. Not with the man he... “If you have to love me, you have to love every part of me.”

He knew, he really did and it was tearing him up into itty bitty pieces. Because he did and he would continue too, even if in this moment it set him against every dream he ever dared to carry. He couldn’t come up with a good retort, a witty comeback, and he sure as hell wouldn’t cry. So instead he balled that anger into a furious little knot and kissed him. 

Theo tasted like blood and sweat, which was unsurprising, but also like lazy longing which just wasn’t fair. With Daniel still pinning him to the roof his reach was limited, but that didn’t stop an eager lean up into the kiss. Something like a growl, for Daniel was too soft for one true, rumbled in his throat and he responded with shoving Theo back down, cracking his head against the rooftop. “Don’t you dare.” Dare what? Move? Kiss him back? 

Theo’s eyes narrowed playfully despite his daze, maybe it had something to do with the freedom that came from having all his dirty secrets now aired. His stomach performed a hot skip of delight; Daniel got even more attractive when he was angry. “Don’t dare what?” Came the sweet tease along with the press of thumbs into tender inner thighs. “You’ve got to be more decisive Daniel.”

Dan scoffed and kissed him again, irritated, wanting, stifling the soft hum of contentment at the contact, at his taste, at the caress of the invading tongue. It shouldn't feel so right, especially after their fight, especially after the lies. This shouldn’t continue to flush his cheeks and release butterflies in his stomach. Shouldn’t make his heart skip in delight because he wanted him, wanted to be with him, wanted to make him happy more than anything. But Theo had such a magnetism to his person that Daniel could do nothing except be drawn to him again and again like a fundamental law of the universe. 

And pulled in he was. Somewhere within the heated space between their lips Daniel had forgotten he was supposed to be angry, supposed to be betrayed. It wasn't until the hand in his hair and the hand on his ass tightened in a possessive grip that he remembered where they were; and realized he’d pressed himself against Theo and his armor. 

Theo grinned, dark eyes alight like coals. He nipped at Daniel’s lower lip, holding that gorgeous blond head so he couldn't pull away. Not that there was any resistance. “The only thing you're sure of right now,” Theo continued a scolding drawl, teacher-like and completely at odds with the finger tracing the line of Daniel’s rear. Not a lot of padding in the suits. At least not in the back. “Is that you want to keep doing this.”

Flushing scarlet up to the tips of his ears, Daniel’s swear was interrupted by the roll of Theo’s hips and a groan came out in its stead. “Get out of my head.” Damnit, Theo was right, the teasing, the emotions, were getting to him and oh how he wanted them to continue. 

The trailing digit slipped between his cheeks, pressing hard against the blue nanomesh, searching. Daniel sucked in a breath, tensing and arched instinctively against the body under him. Fuck. The protective fabric too revealing and too constraining all at once. Teeth grazed his throat, hot breath starting shivers. The gloved hand unwound from his hair to tilt his jaw and Theo hissed into his ear. “Make me.”

Daniel shuddered and it rocked his very breaths. He couldn’t. And not for a lack of trying, but the notion that Theo could know everything, every idea, every pleasure, every want and act upon it was deliriously intoxifying; a strong hot drink after a cold day, heating him tip to toes. Maybe he was screaming his thoughts out and that would screw him in the future but now just the impressions of ‘kiss’ and ‘lower’ brought him precisely the response he wanted. The damn man smirked into the kiss, sucking on Danny’s swollen lower lip like a promise. He continued to tease him through the suit, delighting in the shivers that rolled through the Ranger. Shame he couldn’t feel more through his own armor… 

“Do you still trust me Daniel?” Theo whispered at the cusp of their next kiss. It wasn’t entirely Daniel’s want in the heady emotional mix between them, the light flush dusting his cheeks proof against Daniel’s heavy blush. 

Danny caught vague sensations ideas he knew weren't his own. A want… no, a need… a kind of desperation kept fiercely contained. Was always nice to be desired. He should say no. Especially after this reveal, he’d be betraying the Ranger’s otherwise. But searching Theo’s eyes, those lovely, lonely, haunted eyes, Daniel knew, entirely free of influence, he still did. “Yes.” The whisper back held the weight of the world. 

The shift in Theo’s expression was night and day, it granted a permission of feeling, freedom from the confines of the dark boxes all his dreams and desires were typically packed away in. He wanted Daniel. Wanted to see that perfect blond head thrown back and hear him beg and whine. Wanted to dig his fingers into his hips and mark that restored skin anew. But first there was far too much armor between them. 

“I'm glad.” He purred, protective and predatory, meaning every syllable. With the inhuman strength graced by the suit, Theo shifted them again, sneaking a quick pinch. Under him once more, the look on Danny’s face was entirely different, a mix of neediness and excitement and perhaps a little shock at the predicament he’d gotten into. Theo sat upright, looking down at him with a cocky grin that flashed teeth. And fuck wasn’t he something, with his mussed blond hair, flushed lips, and the obvious hardness under his suit. 

Los Diablos’ very own angel. 

Theo silently cursed the time it took to unbuckle all his armor until only the slick black skinsuit remained. Mentally he coaxed Daniel’s assistance, who in turn set aside each piece with a kind of prudent reverence. There was something viscerally exciting about Danny helping to remove his suit. He lacked the same apprehension of their first night: No more secrets, implicit trust, and the waves of want and adoration palpable flooding out from Daniel’s unshielded mind only burgeoned that confidence. 

They kissed again, Theo’s fingertips playing with the sensitive spots along Danny’s bare neck and throat, following the subconscious sensations. Dan was coming apart and they’d barely started, rocking against Theo’s knee entirely unashamed by his need. “Patience, Danny.” A husky whisper and a mental command, forcing him to still his body. Daniel whimpered at the loss of friction but didn’t fight the influence. He didn’t need to speak for Theo to know he’d obey. “Take you suit off.”

A coy smile flitted across Daniel’s pink lips, and he acquiesced, loving the way Theo’s eyes followed his hands and the reveal inch by inch pale, unmarred skin. Theo might have kept his expression cool, but Danny recognized the twitch of his hands and bob of his adams apple; Theo gave away more than he thought. Finally he wriggled out of the indigo suit, naked as the day he was born. In the dying sunlight he glowed in the warm air, scattering the blond of his hair to vibrant gold, and gave him an added flush by the red light. Impossible to ignore, Herald’s hardness lay against him heavy and proud. Theo sucked in a breath with a sharp hiss at the sight. 

The response drew a wide grin to Danny’s face, still youthful and earnest even with his eyes narrowed in a flirt. He knew the effect he had on Theo and even in this situation it excited him. “It's hardly fair you're still clothed.”

To his credit, Theo tore his gaze from Daniel’s erection long enough to scrape a nail down the center of his chest, the first mark of many. “Then get to it.” 

Never before had Daniel been allowed to undress Theo. It was always an act for him alone, a slow shedding of armor stronger and more permanent than what he’d been wearing minutes earlier. On his knees, Daniel gently tugged at the dark mesh, treating him with a tenderness reserved exclusively for their quiet, intimate moments. He might try and hide it, but Danny felt the tenseness in his muscles, the controlled rise of his chest, the instinctive flinch as the costume peeled back revealing the old wounds and tattoos beneath. He tempered the rush of indignation with fluttery kisses, a warm-mouthed appreciation over pale scars and the lurid orange lines alike. Theo belong to no one but himself now, and Daniel’s love belonged to him. 

A low huff of appreciation caused Daniel to look up, he must have projected that thought too loudly. “You're such a good boy Danny.” Theo crooned, tilting his chin up. “You know I appreciate you right?” A keen nod. Theo’s eyes narrowed, a toothy smirk appearing as he brushed a calloused thumb along Daniel’s lips. The rest of the body suit quickly pooled in a silky black pile at Theo’s feet. “You know,” With one hand he continued to cup Daniel’s face, with the other, he stroked himself with slow, languid pulls, “I really liked what you did our first night.”

At the admittance, Daniel felt himself twitch, heat building under his stomach. The moans that night, the way Theo gasped ‘Danny!’ and gripped at the sheets, the pounding of his heart had etched those memories in deep and they all came back in vivid detail being presented with Theo’s cock. Still, it was unfamiliar territory, the musky scent had his head swimming. Daniel licked his lips, glancing up into Theo’s eyes, swallowing as the other man nodded, guiding himself towards his mouth.

Theo tasted like sweat and a heady tang as the first inch passed Daniel’s spit-slicked lips. Danny shut his eyes to focus on the feel, the weight, the choked back groans of his lover above him. Sidestep. Villain. Theo. A particular swipe of his tongue elicited a satisfactory moan and another as Danny hummed in time, taking in another inch.

The effect was instantaneous, an electric connection between them not unlike telepathy. Theo trembled, the smug mask breaking, too sensitive and too inexperienced to keep calm when Danny looked like that. Hands twisted in golden hair, brown eyes barely meeting blue, those flushed cheeks, that mouth around him, that damn, pleased expression and just the way he radiated the need to satisfy. “Fuck…” He rasped, biting his lip, hard, had to get back control, had too… Daniel’s tongue teased his slit and that was enough. “Danny…”

Dan grinned around the hardness in his mouth, he trembled at the way Theo rasped his name, the delight racing hot shudders down his spine. Every sound, every shift of fingers in his hair, went right to his cock; getting lost in the heady space of the language of love Theo was far more comfortable speaking. His tongue traced Theo's head again, drawing out any moan and whimper of delight he could. If it pleased Theo, it please Daniel, and Danny knew Theo acted far more confident than he pretended to be. 

Theo keened and tightened his grip in his hair. “Danny ...!” He always devolved into nicknames when his emotions were winning the battle against anxious prudence. He wished he'd more control than he did but all this was very new, and Daniel was very very good. Daniel snuck a glance up pleased by the flush that radiated on the other man's cheeks. He got the sense, telepathically, that he had precious few seconds to decide whether or not to finish Theo then in there.

A wet pop echoed across the rooftop, Daniel barely able to take a breath before Theo stole it with a heady kiss, unperturbed by his own taste in the other man's mouth. A warm unrelated to his arousal bubbled in the Ranger, Theo was simply gorgeous all mussed and honest and turned on. 

"Hey quit that." Picking up the projected thought, Theo rasped against Daniel's lips and he flushed deeper. How was he even supposed to handle Dan's devotion? Hate and disappointment would've been so much easier than whatever the fuck he was feeling right now. 

Daniel only hummed in response, drawing feel back into another kiss, man wasn't he cute when he got flustered. "Never." He tossed back, all angelic smiles and bedroom eyes. With the apparent realization that Theo's guard had dropped, Danny grinned and shifted, pressing their bodies together, his hand wrapped around both their hard pricks. 

"Oh." Theo's response came off so blasé, but this was certainly something new to Theo’s experience. He groaned as Daniel’s palm worked them together, and, embarrassed, latched onto a spot on his angel’s neck, stifling his noises and intending to work up Daniel just the same. The breathy gasp and jerk of his hips said he’d succeeded. The twitch of Daniel’s cock against his own proved erotic in a way he hadn’t known was possible. Even without the telepathy, he could experience every bite, every hot breath, every noise and what it stirred in Daniel. On Dan’s own part, he relished the tension building low in him, the way Theo learned more about the two of them, the thrill of doing this in what was, after all, still a very open space.

That thought rocked a hot shock through Daniel, his cock twitched in his hand, their combined pre and sweat making his fingers slick. Theo bucked against his lovers hand, the anticipation building below his navel, the pressure behind his balls, driving him madder than he was for having fallen in love in the first place with this brilliant beautiful devil of a-

“Danny-” Without control, he tightened his grip, biting down the crack in his voice, pushing his own waves of pleasure at Daniel until they both came, a sticky musky mess between two tired and sweaty bodies.

They lay there together, catching their breath, the bruises from their scuffle beginning to blossom in red welts where their fingerprints and lips hadn’t. It was nice, a moment out of time, freed from the responsibilities and pressures that held them otherwise, just two people, entwined together cooling, resting in the final streaks of day.

"So what does this mean?" Daniel's voice broke the silence, when Theo began to move restlessly, now aware just how public their engagement had been without the safety of his helmet. The warmth of the sun had gone, lost to the long shadows across the roof. He loved Theo, he had for months. Theo couldn't say it back, but it had seemed possible at times but that was before today. 

The telepath shifted beside him, a sigh that protested the discussion. Daniel grasped at Theo's wrist, but with tenderness, Theo pried his grip away. "I don't know Danny." His face, masked in shadows gave more away than the defeated flatness of his voice. "I didn't plan this far ahead, or at all really, I just…" He shrugged slipping back into the undersuit. "I have no idea."

"I'll keep your secret." Daniel vowed, unbidden, and when Theo finally turned to him, the only emotion readable in those deep eyes was the smallest flicker of hope. Theo didn't immediately respond, the silence dragging between the pair getting redressed. 

"I know Danny, Its means… more than I really know how to say." 

Quick to continue, to garner any further few precious seconds together, Daniel said, "You don't have to keep doing this, you can be official, Ortega and Angie will have your back too, and Marshall-"

An armored finger to his lips silenced the name. "It's not that simple Daniel. I wish it was but its not." The masks were going backing on

"You could make it so." Daniel pleaded. "You don't have to do all this alone."

For a long moment, or a short lifetime, they stood there, Daniel's cheek cradled in Theo's palm, blue-sky and dark-earth eyes locked together, their thoughts semi-shrouded and nebulous. "I'm not alone anymore Danny," Theo finally spoke, the forethought of a smile on his lips "After all, I have you." 

Not granted a chance to respond, the goodbye kiss was quick and searing and Daniel didn't find his voice until after the hem of Sidesteps cape disappeared over the buildings edge. Left in the dark, too many complicated emotions to name roiled in his gut. He loved Theo, but Theo was also the enemy? He should feel betrayed but with the anger subsided, all that remained was a bland and gritty relief. Footsteps quieted as Herald returned to hovering, staring out across the Los Diablos skyline. 

If there was one thing he was sure of, no matter where Theo went, or what he did to himself, he'd be drawn back to him; a satellite to a star. 

Down in the streets, Theo would have argued that position, if only to remind Danny, he'd been the lonely moon until Daniel's sun had drawn them together in concert, interconnected, like some fundamental law of the universe.


End file.
